Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchValidation of Proposed DSM-5 Criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Section snippets
Sample
Data were obtained from the Interactive Autism Network (IAN; www.ianproject.org), a U.S., Internet-based registry for families with one or more ASD-affected child (IAN Data Export ID: IAN_DATA_2010-07-06). Families were eligible for enrollment in IAN if the parent or legal guardian who provided information was English speaking, the family lived in the United States, and their child was diagnosed with an ASD by a professional. To be included in the present study, caregivers must have reported
Sample Characteristics
The total IAN sample included symptom data from 14,774 youth aged 2 to 18 years (8,911 ASD; 5,863 caregiver-designated non-ASD siblings) provided by 10,038 caregivers. There was a predominance of males with clinical ASD diagnoses (82.3%) and females in the sibling comparison group (53.9%), consistent with the sex ratio of autism. SRS data were available from 6,949 youth (4,248 ASD and 2,701 non-ASD siblings), and SCQ data were available from 14,200 youth (8,606 ASD and 5,594 non-ASD siblings),
Discussion
In this investigation, a hybrid model, closely matching proposed DSM-5 criteria for ASD, yielded the most parsimonious representation of autism symptoms. The model included both a categorical distinction between youth with and without ASD and dimensional representations of social communication and interaction difficulties and restricted, repetitive behavior. Sensitivity analyses supported this hybrid conceptualization of ASD with generalization across measurement scales and demographic
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This publication was made possible by the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Clinic Clinical and Translational Grant Number UL1 RR024989 from the National Center for Research Resources. Autism Speaks provided support for the Interactive Autism Network project and Dr. Law. Funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant Number HD42541 supported Dr. Constantino's involvement. Dr. Eng is a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist and holds the Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Chair of Cancer Genomic Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Law designed and maintains the Interactive Autism Network registry. Drs. Frazier, Youngstrom, and Eng designed the present study. Dr. Frazier obtained funding to support analyses. Drs. Frazier, Youngstrom, Speer, Constantino, Findling, and Hardan, and Ms. Embacher supervised data interpretation of the study. Drs. Frazier and Ms. Embacher conducted data management and data analyses. All authors contributed to writing and revision.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the efforts of families contributing to the Interactive Autism Network. Drs. Frazier and Youngstrom served as the statistical experts.
Disclosure: Dr. Frazier has received federal funding or research support from, acted as a consultant to, or received travel support from Shire Development, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Integragen, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. Dr. Youngstrom has received travel support from Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Findling receives or has received research support, acted as a consultant to and/or served on a speakers' bureau for Abbott, Addrenex, AstraZeneca, Biovail, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Forest, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, KemPharm, Eli Lilly and Co., Lundbeck, Merck, Neuropharm, Novartis, Noven, Organon, Otsuka, Pfizer, Rhodes Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi-Aventis, Schering-Plough, Seaside Therapeutics, Sepracore, Shire, Solvay, Sunovion, Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Transcept, Validus, and Wyeth. Dr. Constantino receives grant or research support from NIH, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, Autism Speaks, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He receives royalties from Western Psychological Services for the commercial distribution of the Social Responsiveness Scale, one of the metrics used in this study; no royalties were generated by any of the assessments performed in the present research. Drs. Law, Speer, Eng, and Hardan, and Ms. Embacher report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
This article is discussed in an editorial by Dr. Bennett L. Leventhal on page 6.
Supplemental material cited in this article is available online.